The Cottage Basket — Local services in Homewood

About two years ago my fiancé (now husband) and I came to the Homewood area to do some shopping. I will never forget this experience and how rude the ladies were to us. We came into the store and immediately a brunette lady whispered to another lady and they looked at us uncomfortably. I noticed it but we just kept looking around. The store is absolutely beautiful and I adored all the treasures inside. I saw a gorgeous pair of seed bead "WDE Tiger earrings" and I HAD to have them. I grabbed them and kept walking toward the left side of the store. A blonde lady who looked like the biggest southern belle witch snob approached us and said "I can take that for you!" grabbed the earrings out of my hands and walked away. My husband and I looked at each other. I thought it was a nice gesture and she was just really "over the top" so I let it roll off my back. We kept looking at the merchandise and that is when I noticed the blonde witch was following us and watching us. I started to get really uncomfortable as I was smelling a small bottle of perfume, she once again aggressively approached me and said "I can take that from you!" and jerked it out of my hand. My husband caught on to this and he said "Let's just go." So we went to the counter because I was not leaving without the tiger earrings. The blonde witch placed the 4 items on the counter that she jerked from me. It was two pairs of seed bead earrings, a whisky glass ice mold, and my little bottle of perfume. She asked us if we had ever been in the store before and of course, we said we had not.( Which is true. At the time I lived in Kentucky and my husband lived in Auburn, AL. We came to shop in the area because my husband had a massive interview for a head pharmacist position at a major pharmacy in town.) When we said we had not been in the store before she looked at us, laughed, and said "Oh yes you have." We just stared at her in astonishment. She then said, "We have seen you before." FALSE. We just let her say what she wanted. Grabbed our bag after purchase...which by the way she asked for all of our information besides our blood type. We had nothing to hide. We got in the car and the guy she pays to clean her parking lot watched us get in the car and was clearly told to get our plate number. I was pretty much in tears because I was so angry. I am not sure what her deal was. Maybe she thought we were other individuals? Maybe she was a snobby wealthy woman who judged our outfits? My husband was in shorts and a shirt after his interview and I was in a t-shirt and leggings with a ball cap on. Not meaning to toot my own horn but my husband and I are doing VERY well for ourselves considering he is a pharmacist in a high leadership role and I myself work in a very prestigious law firm in Mountain Brook. I tend to buy unique gifts from local stores because I am big on KINDNESS and supporting small businesses...BIG MISTAKE for this business. I give the "what for" to rude and entitled women like the ones staffed here so my words like "witch" might come across as harsh but honestly, she was the rudest human I have ever encountered. Do not shop here, give your money to kind people. Horrible service for sure such a...

I'll be honest, this was a very rude welcoming, and I didn't even set foot in the store. We are new to the area and I have a toddler who doesn't do well with shopping. It makes Christmas shopping very stressful and discouraging enough. So, a friend recommended checking out this strip in Homewood because I could park and walk shop to shop in one place and support local shops, versus driving all over to try and shop with a cranky toddler. I drove around for nearly 20mins just trying to find parking, even passing up a spot labeled for this businesses customers on one of several laps of the area, because I wasn't even sure what shops I was checking out yet or what each had. I finally find a spot at the back of the lot with NO SIGN. As I go to pull in, I'm stopped by a gentleman in a high vis vest. He asks me if I plan to shop at the The Cottage Basket. I told him honestly I planned to shop the strip. He told me the parking spot belonged to his store (even though there is no sign like there was on other spots). I apologized and told him I had never been there before and didn't know. And at that, I had planned to just drive off. But he then said "well if you don't go in my store, I WILL have you towed. And I will be watching you." To that, I told him he didn't have to be rude and that I definitely wasn't shopping there now. I pulled away feeling completely defeated. He watched me the entire time until I circled and exited the lot (made sure to wave at him to acknowledge I saw him watching me like a criminal), and I tried finding parking another 5mins before my toddler started bawling. Instead I just decided to drive the 30mins back home empty-handed, having done zero shopping. I meant what I said and will not be stepping foot in a business that stalks potential customers in the parking lot, who had nothing but good intentions. I get that owning a small business is tough (I've done it), and that you try to look out for your customers where you can, but in a shopping strip it's hard to believe you own that many spots, especially unlabeled. Shopping strips are designed for people to park, walk, and shop. And even if you do some how own the spots at the back of the lot, you NEED signage and certainly don't need to threaten to stalk a young mom and her toddler just trying to Christmas shop. Ironically, The Cottage Basket would have likely been my first stop since it was right there. This is the only negative review I've ever left, and I hate to make it against a small business. But I also have over a decade of customer service experience, management, and small business ownership under my belt, and this is simply not how you...

The parking attendant working on 6/7 is the exact reason why I will never come and shop here. I parked and began walking out of my car on the sidewalk to then be harassed about how I can’t park here. I wasn’t even walking in a direction other than parallel of the street and I was immediately targeted and told that I have to buy something from one of the shops in the buildings in order to park here. Unbelievable. I told her that it’s no problem I plan to move and that this store won’t be receiving business from me now or moving forward. She then proceeds to tell me that there is a sign I read when parking to which she just wanted to argue with me because my complete intention of parking in the parking lot was to shop here. Not...